Thursday, April 1, 2010

Brian Zoubek is expecting West Virginia's offense to try to make him uncomfortable, Nolan Smith is ready for the Mountaineers' zone defense and Lance Thomas is waxing philosophical on what it's like to be the only No. 1 seed remaining in the NCAA tournament.

Here's what Duke's players had to say during Thursday's media session in Indianapolis as they prepare for Saturday's NCAA semifinal game against West Virginia:

Zoubek on West Virginia: "I would say they are a little bit like Baylor. They have a lot of athletic, interchangeable players. And obviously, I know they're going to try to spread it out, and try to take me outside of the lane, so I can't protect the basket as much."

Kyle Singler on the Mountaineers' size: "They're not a very big team, but overall they've got a lot of guys that are 6-8 or 6-7. So across the board they are a tall team. We have to be smart. We have to pass the ball and take good shots. That's been our motto all year. It doesn't matter what shot you take, just as long as it's a good shot. With their zone, they will try to use their length against us."

Nolan Smith on West Virginia's zone: "So far this year we haven't really played against a 1-3-1. The last time guys on this team have done it was against Michgian when they extended the 1-3-1 and attacked the ball. So we've done a good job of preparing [against] the 1-3-1 in practice and it's all about attacking it. Baylor played a really aggressive zone and I was able to get into the middle of it, so I'm going to look to do the same thing. As a team we just need to attack it."

Lance Thomas on the pressure of being a No. 1 seed: "We definitely had a target on our back. Not only in the NCAA tournametn but in the regular season and the ACC tournament, too. Because we have Duke in front of our jerseys, other teams wanted to take our heads off, and they got up to play us game after game. A lot of the games later in the season were really close games, teams we had beaten by a bigger margin earlier in the season. That mentally prepared us for the conference and the NCAA tournament, having the mental toughness down the stretch to pull out the close games."

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About this blog

David Scott has been with the Observer for 28 years and has written about ACC, SEC and other college sports in the Charlotte region. He covers Wake Forest, South Carolina and college soccer for the Observer and (Raleigh) News & Observer.

J.P. Giglio covers the ACC for the News & Observer, where he has worked since 1997, and the Observer.

Andrew Carter covers the North Carolina Tar Heels for the Observer and News & Observer.

Laura Keeley covers the Duke Blue Devils for the Observer and News & Observer. Follow her on Twitter.

Chip Alexander covers the Carolina Hurricanes and college football for the News & Observer, where he has worked since 1979, and the Observer.

Luke DeCock has worked for The News & Observer since 2000. He covered the Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL before becoming a sports columnist for the Observer and News & Observer in August 2008.

Tim Crothers is an author and former senior writer at Sports Illustrated who is joining the sports staff to write a regular column during the rest of the college basketball season.